One conventional detector for controlling light is a dusk to dawn detector. Such a detector uses a photo-diode and suffers from frequent false detection. Another problem with conventional detectors is that the detector cannot provide synchronous timing to multiple light fixtures such as a pair of light fixtures at a front door or at a garage door. A camera as a light sensor is more accurate than a photo-diode, but still not sufficient.
Conventional approaches for controlling lights are limited to pre-set times such as turning the lights on from dusk until a fixed delay time has passed (i.e., 3 hours, 5 hours, etc.). Such approaches are not popular due to various disadvantages. One disadvantage is that fixed timers for controlling lights do not behave the same as when a person controls the lights.
Current technology can control outdoor lights by sensing dusk/dawn, but merely detecting dusk/dawn wastes energy and does not behave in a manner that suggests a person is home. One improvement is to provide pre-set times such as activating the lights from dusk until a fixed delay timer has passed in order to simulate “dusk to bedtime” (i.e., people often turn lights off before going to bed in order to save energy). The “dusk to bedtime” improvement is not popular because users need to manually adjust the fixed delay due to the time of dusk changing throughout the year (i.e., seasonal effects).
When a pair of adjacent lights are controlled using current technology such as photo-diodes, the lights may not turn on and off synchronously. The offset in timing can be bad aesthetically and provides an indication to a potential thief a lighting system is controlled by a photo-diode.
Current motion detection technology can be used to turn on the lights when a person is detected and is effective for both security and energy saving. Motion detection can be used in conjunction with the “dusk to bedtime” feature as described above. However, the motion detection signal cannot be used to turn on indoor lights, limiting the security effectiveness. An alert person inside the house would turn on the indoor lights if someone is detected at the perimeter of the house.
It would be desirable to implement smart lighting by outdoor wall-mounted and/or ceiling mounted light fixtures and connected light bulbs that implement an automatic control to turn on the light from dusk until a pre-defined bedtime.